"Patrick Brazeau, to me he's a tragedy," she said. "Here's a person that got appointed to the Senate, could have done great work for his people. It's just a human tragedy and an experiment gone wrong."

Later in the CBC interview, Brazeau confirmed he was hospitalized for eight days recently, but denied it had anything to do with drinking or drugs.

He also said he owes Canada's aboriginal community an apology because "I put my loyalty and trusted this prime minister to do the right thing."